Halogen Hazard

Lionel Hampton Fire Puts Heat On A Trendy Style Of Torchier Lamps

February 01, 1997|By Andree Brooks, New York Times News Service.

How safe are halogen floor lamps? The question was raised earlier this year by the fire that destroyed the Manhattan apartment of Lionel Hampton, the jazz vibraphonist. The fire burned so intensely and spread so rapidly that in minutes Hampton lost most of his personal belongings. Its cause was apparently an overturned halogen lamp.

The safety of halogen floor lamps has been questioned for more than a year.

Product safety and fire officials across the country have received dozens of reports of fires caused by torchier-style halogen lamps, which look like a large salad bowl perched atop a long pole. Some universities have banned them from dormitory rooms. And the lighting industry itself is adopting new safety requirements for their design.

This does not mean that all halogen lamps are as dangerous as the torchier style. Authorities on the subject say they have received no reports yet of fires caused by smaller halogen lamps, like those used on desks, although they note that even the smaller bulbs become sizzling hot.

Although halogen bulbs use less energy than standard incandescent bulbs, they burn hotter. The trouble with the torchier lamps is the combination of their bowl-shaped design and the extremely hot bulb: a 500- or 300-watt tubular design.

The 300-watt halogen bulbs in some torchiers can reach 970 degrees Fahrenheit, and 500-watt bulbs can reach 1,200 degrees. Considering that paper ignites at 340 degrees and cloth at 640 degrees, it is easy to see why the lamps pose a hazard.

"I'm often asked to put these lamps in children's rooms," said Art Bradshaw, an electrical contractor in Trumbull, Conn., "and I worry because they generate such tremendous heat. I don't think people realize this."

The lamps' simple design, low price and intense light have made them extremely popular. Most suggest the high Milan style of the 1980s, and they are now available for less than $20 at hardware, lighting and home improvement stores, and even at drug and discount stores. By last July, about 40 million halogen torchiers were in use, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

But their hazards to home and health are clear. The commission, a federal agency, has received reports of about 100 fires resulting from the lamps, most of them in 1996. Ten people died in those fires.

State Farm Insurance, the nation's largest insurer of homes, began to identify fires caused by the lamps last year. Colleges and universities, including Yale, Brown and Williams, have banned halogen torchiers from dormitory rooms, partly because the design of the lamp makes it so handy for drying or hanging clothes.

In November, The Daily Northwestern, the student newspaper of Northwestern University, likened the lamps to "an eager Venus' flytrap," ready to devour anything that drops into their inverted jaws: a fallen poster, nearby draperies, sheets of paper.

In one instance a pair of hockey sticks burned after being hooked over the bowl. In other dormitories, fires have started after someone has tried to dry a T-shirt or towel by hanging it over the bowl.

Draperies that are too close to lamps or are blown into their bowls by a breeze have also caused fires.

In a child's room, a paper airplane, a lobbed stuffed animal or a sock caught in the bowl could quickly send flames upward. Walls can smolder if the lamp is too close, even a foot away, fire officials say.

And if a lamp is knocked over near a bed -- as Hampton's may have been -- anything it touches could burst into flames.

Last year, the Consumer Product Safety Commission urged Underwriters Laboratories, the national product safety and testing organization, to toughen its performance standards for halogen lamps.

Since then, lamp makers who want the UL seal have been required to limit the power of halogen bulbs in new torchiers to 300 watts. And lamp owners are being urged by UL to replace 500-watt bulbs with 300-watt bulbs.